This is the shocking amount of sugar the average person adds to their tea

Maybe it's time to rethink how much sugar you're adding to your tea? (Photo: Shutterstock)

Rhona Shennan

Published:2:35 pmMay 15, 2019

University College London released a study earlier this year that showed that people don’t need sugar to enjoy their tea.

However, new research reveals shocking information regarding how much sugar people across the country are adding to their tea.

What did the new study say?

The study, conducted by sofa and carpet specialist SCS, has unveiled the tea drinking habits of Brits, from how much sugar we’re adding to how many cups a day we drink.

British people, who are notorious for loving a good cup of tea, perhaps unexpectedly said that the most popular time of day to have a cup of tea was 8am.

However, the further the study investigated, the stranger our tea-drinking habits as a nation became.

Who is drinking the most tea?

Five per cent of Brits confessed to drinking up to 12 cups of tea in a single day.

Northern Ireland took the crown for most tea drunk per person at a whopping eight cups per day. London was a close second with an average of six cups a day.

The most standard number across the UK was four cups per day. That was the average across six areas of the nation, including Scotland and Wales.

Men were found to drink more tea on average than women, working out at about 5.2 cups a day compared to the 4.4 cups that ladies drink. Men were also found to be twice as likely to drink an impressive 12 brews per day.

The rate at which we consume our tea is also impacted by our profession the study found, with electricians topping the list of biggest tea drinkers, sinking 11 cups of tea per day on average.

Who is having the most sugar?

The study of 2,000 people found that 37 per cent of Brits choose to take their tea with sugar.

Norwich was revealed to have the sweetest tooth out of the rest of the UK, adding 3.3 spoonfuls of sugar, on average.

The national average was found to be just under two spoonfuls of the sweet stuff.

Glasgow residents were the least likely to add anything to their tea, with 76 per cent of people saying they don’t take their cuppa with any sugar.

Men are more likely to have more sugar in their tea than women with 2.2 spoonfuls compared to 1.7 spoonfuls.

Most shockingly, the study found that one in 30 people admitted to having up to five spoonfuls of sugar in their tea.

We don’t actually need sugar to enjoy tea?

According to a month long study conducted by researchers from University College London and the University of Leeds, we don’t actually need to be adding sugar to our tea. The study analysed the tea drinking routines of 64 men who usually took their brew with sugar.

The participants were split up into three groups – those who were to stop adding sugar to their tea straightaway, those who were asked to gradually reduce the level of added sugar, and those who didn’t need to change their habits at all.

After four weeks, the results found that those who were asked to change how they took their tea, either by reducing sugar or cutting it out altogether, were still able to enjoy their brew just the same.